Why I Taught my 6yr old & 4yr old About Abortion...

... and other topics that are "taboo" to discuss with children....

Unborn baby at 24 weeks gestation... can legally be aborted.

Well, I have a few reasons. For starters, I've never really been good at lying. I don't do well with telling my children that Santa is real or that their broccoli will give them super human strength. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy pretend play time and I love good fiction/fantasy based movies like Lord of the Rings or The Avengers! I'm not anti-pretending. But there's just something about lying to my kids that doesn't sit well with me. And maybe I'll pay dearly for it in the end, but for now, it really seems to spark trust and good communication between me, my husband, and our children. They aren't afraid to ask us anything and they know that we will answer them, to the best of our ability and without being too age inappropriate, with the truth. Truth is very important to me. And I hope that I am instilling in my little ones the love of truth. So that's one reason we've already talked about hard topics like abortion, slavery, drugs, addictions, homosexuality, divorce, pornography (not in too much detail, but the basic idea of looking at women without their clothes on), etc. If it comes up (they hear something on the news or hear someone talking about it), we discuss it as a family. We talk about what it is, what God says about it, and what our family believes. The dinner table is a great conversation tool :)

Another reason I've taught my children about abortion and other hard topics is because I want them to learn the truth; not someone else's opinion. I don't want them to just believe whatever people tell them. I want them to ask questions, to use critical thinking, to compare that with Scripture and form a decision based on truth. Too often we let society mold the minds of our little ones into something that doesn't reflect what God values or His Truth. When we discuss difficult topics, we don't just say... A is bad because of B. We talk to them about both sides. This is what A is. This is why people believe A is OK. What do you think? What does the Bible say? When we discussed abortion, I told my kids the facts. There are a lot of people in our world today that think it's OK to kill a baby inside its mommy's tummy. Some women don't think it's human, like it's just "almost" a baby. Some women think that a baby isn't human until it's born. In fact, our President believes that a baby inside a mommy's tummy isn't human until after it is born. Some women think that babies are a burden, that they are too hard to deal with, too expensive, come at the wrong time, etc. Some women get very sick when they are pregnant and sometimes doctors tell mommies that the baby is very sick and it would basically be better off dead than to be born with problems. Some women are forced to kill their babies because the daddy was very mean to them or the grandparents are worried what people will think of the mommy if she's not married. There are many reasons why a mommy might choose to kill her baby. Do you think any of these are good reasons?

Guess what? It didn't take a long debate where my children weighed out all the reasons why they should be pro-life or pro-death. No. They answered in a split second, "there's never a good reason to kill your baby!!" They came up with that answer. On their own. My daughter was absolutely blown away that there is even this thing called abortion. Like it can't even be a real thing that people would kill babies. And yet it's rampant. We have not sheltered them from the Gosnell trial either. In fact, we have discussed it openly with them. I have, however, spared them the grisly photos. But they know who he is, what he did, why he's on trial, and so forth. My daughter and I sat and cried together as we were sorrowful over our societies lack of value for life. It broke her heart. And some of you may say, "why would you let her know this!? Why wouldn't you save her a few more years of innocence?" Well, because it's happening now. This is the moment when our country will either convict Gosnell and prove they have any a shred of conscience left or they will let him walk and prove that our country truly does not value life at all any more. We want our children to value life. We told them to value something is to think it's special. To want to take care of it and keep it safe; like something that you cherish. We spent several weeks teaching them about what God values and why. God values all human life including the unborn, those who are slaves (including those who are sex-trafficked), the elderly, orphans, and those who are handicapped and deformed. A great number of these that our society (by means of abortion, euthanasia, or turning a blind eye) would rather get rid of. Gosnell does not value life. Abortionists do not value life. President Obama does not value life. And it's easy for children to fall into that same mindset if we don't teach them to value the things God values.

As homeschoolers (and even as PARENTS) we have the opportunity, no, the responsibility to teach our children the hard truths, even when it seems too difficult to discuss. How can we teach our children to have courage in the face of difficulty if we can't do it ourselves? How can we teach our children to stand up for what is right if we shy away from any conflict that may be offensive or politically incorrect? How can we teach our children to grow up to have strong convictions if we can't stand on our own? I don't want to raise children who are afraid to speak, afraid of what others think of them, afraid to fight for what is right. I want them do to exactly as Joshua 1:9 says... be strong and courageous, do not be terrified, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go! I don't want to wait until the issue comes before them to make a choice and we haven't prepared them. There's no time to be timid in this world we're living in. 

Yesterday I had Savanna do a mini-report on abortion. I gave her the writing prompt, "I think abortion is..." and asked her to write something. I told her to think about why people get abortions and what you think about that. I did not tell her what to say. This is what she wrote...

With her report on abortion

She also drew a picture of an unborn baby at 10 weeks gestation (I looked up a picture from online for her to copy). She made note that the baby had little arms and legs already, you could see where her eyes and ears were, and she even had a smile! (I say "she" because Savanna drew a little bow on her head and said "it's a girl!!")

Her drawing of a baby at 10 weeks

So, there you have it. You may think I'm crazy, I know. But my husband and I believe we are raising children that will know the truth, love the Lord, and courageously value what God values. I hope you will find encouragement in that as you are faced with these difficult topics with your children.

Bye for now,
Kristina